People casting their ballots in a polling station during the presidential primary election on April 26, 2016, in Philadelphia. Related Article.Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times

If you’ve been following our Election Week posts the past few days, you know we’ve been publishing sections of a flexible unit, intended to work with any day’s New York Times, to help students think about the candidates and issues of this year’s presidential race.

Virginia delegates and Clinton supporters on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July. Related ArticleCredit Damon Winter/The New York Times

This week is Election Week on our blog, and each day we’ve published a new section of our Election Unit.

On Monday we gave an overview of the entire unit, including goals, essential questions and projects. Tuesday’s post suggests ways for students to learn about the candidates by working as investigative reporters. Wednesday’s post explores the issues at stake this election year. Below, we focus on the way the candidates have been running their campaigns.

Demonstrators gathered in front of the United States Supreme Court in Washington in June. The court struck down parts of a restrictive abortion law in Texas. Related ArticleCredit Zach Gibson/The New York Times

All week long we are publishing sections of our Election Unit, each day’s post a new “mini-unit” based on an essential question. All five posts work together to take students through a series of hands-on research and presentation projects that will help them understand the candidates and the issues in this year’s presidential race.

Our Civil Conversation Challenge for Teenagers is now open for submissions. Between now and Nov. 7, we invite teenagers to have productive, respectful conversations on our site about issues that divide us this election season.

It’s Election Week on the Learning Network, and we’ll be posting a new section of our flexible Election Unit each day.

On Monday we provided an overview for how the unit will work. Below, our first “mini-unit,” focused on the question: Who are the candidates?

Mini-Unit 1: The CandidatesEssential Question: Who Are the Candidates?Project: Candidate Profiles

Overview: For this first mini-unit, students become investigative reporters who learn as much as they can about the candidates so they can inform voters about what experience, leadership qualities and values both candidates would bring to the presidency.Read more…

As we get ready to bring you new lesson plans for a new school year, including many more resources for Election 2016, we’re curious: How will you be teaching about the candidates, issues and controversies in a contest that has been anything but business as usual?

How will you approach an election in which one of the candidates has been condemned by many senior officials of his own party because he “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being”?

Before Reading: Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”

Because The Learning Network is for students 13 and older, our resources focus on understanding the massacre and its implications, but parents and teachers of younger students might find this advice, published by The Times after the Newtown shootings, more helpful. Our friends at Scholastic also offer these Resources for Responding to Violence and Tragedy.